The burden of student loan debt is crushing way too many young people, so it”s not surprising that President Obama is taking aim at the problem.

Alas, instead of going at it in a rational, well-thought out way, he”s falling back on what has become a tiresome strategy — pulling in a group of supporters to line up behind him and applaud while he offers up a camera-ready, politically savvy proposal that doesn”t come close to getting at the heart of the problem.

On one level, his approach seems to make sense. Student loans total more than $1 triilion, and about one in seven people now default on their loans.

The problem is that he”s tinkering with an issue that needs a response that addresses a bigger problem: the cost of higher education.

The huge expansion of student-loan debt has only exacerbated the problem of higher college costs. Obama”s proposal for an executive order expanding a current program doesn”t make the problem any worse by itself, but neither does it do anything to dissuade people from taking on debts they can”t afford.

But Obama is also embracing a Senate bill that would reduce interest rates on student loans by letting borrowers refinance.

What Obama isn”t saying is that student loans are already more affordable than other kinds of debt — think credit cards or car loans. Further lowering of rates will only encourage more borrowing, which already is at alarming levels.

Further borrowing only encourages colleges and universities to continue charging huge dollars for tuition. The more government makes available to students, the more money college admission officers can collect.

It”s a sweet system for colleges and universities. Students are highly motivated to attend college, and the government is encouraging them to take out loans.

Then, if the students can”t pay, the government is figuring out ways to bail them out — and the taxpayer makes up the difference.

There must be a better way. Two Republicans — one senator and one congressman — have proposed ideas that would encourage repayment by automatically enrolling students in repayment plans upon their employment. Perhaps the two parties could actually meet and confer over a bipartisan effort to approach the problem.

Obama vowed in his State of the Union address this year that he”s giving up on the Republicans and going his own way with executive orders. But the result of that strategy is narrow solutions for big problems.

The student loan problem is a result of complex economic and education issues. It involves jobs, inequality, failures of our education system and a university system in need of reform. It needs presidential leadership, not a feckless proposal that”s more political than substantive.